Daily Santorum: Thanks, Arlen

Much of today's Daily Santorum concerns Pennsylvania and, of course, the Netherlands. But first: is Sir Rick limping into Michigan, after pushing most of his chips there?

Nate Silver's poll model has Mitt Romney ahead again in his home state (the only home state, Gail Collins reminds, where he does not actually have a home, unlike Mass., N.H., and California. At least Santorum, a Virginia resident, only has one other place off a pothole-ridden road in Penn Hills.)

He's getting ganged up on by the GOP media establishment and his ability to talk confidently about federal issues -- due to his many years on Capitol Hill -- is backfiring a bit with earmarks-wary tea partiers. His surge in Arizona is counterbalanced by the fact that many vote early by mail there, before he started doing well in polls.

But at least he's got good ol' Keystone State right? He leads Romney 45-16% in his home state according to the latest Franklin & Marshall poll. And he's got a lot of great friends in Pa, including . . . longtime fellow Senator Arlen Specter.

Romney has been clubbing Santorum over his support of Specter over challenger Pat Toomey in 2004, and Specter has been making it no easier. While Santorum his support was based on getting Specter's vote for Supreme Court picks, Specter is denying that (as he did in 2010), and all together acting very Specter-like -- for a guy so attuned to perceived slights (like this one involving Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl) he is turning on a guy who stuck his neck out for him in 2004, and saying he is too extreme to be president. From Politico:

“Where you have Senator Santorum’s views, so far to the right, with his attitude on women in the workplace and gays and the bestiality comments and birth control, I do not think it is realistic for Rick Santorum to represent America,” Specter said on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown.”